The present invention relates to an electricity storage type air conditioning apparatus and a cooling/heating source device therefor which utilize electric power stored by making use of night surplus power, and more particularly this invention is suitable to expand the performance of air conditioners using the refrigeration cycle system and to carry out peak power cut to improve the economic efficiency.
Heretofore, it has been known that, in order to cope with the improvement in performance of the air conditioner or the needs for increase in cooling load and additional installation, the liquid piping of the refrigeration cycle system is provided with a heat exchanger so as to carry out heat exchange between a cooling/heating source medium sent from a cooling/heating source device to the heat exchanger and a liquid refrigerant in the liquid piping, as disclosed in JP-A-5-126428, for example.
Further, it is disclosed in JP-A-6-137650, for example, that reduction in power consumption, that is, peak power cut of an air conditioner particularly in the summer daytime is carried out by making use of a storage battery.
Among the prior arts described above, in the apparatus of the type that the cooling/heating source device comprises the refrigeration cycle system, it is impossible to reduce the power consumption in the daytime because driving the cooling/heating source device consumes the power. On the other hand, in the apparatus of the type that the cooling/heating source device utilizes a heat storage tank, it is possible to carry out peak power cut in the daytime but it is difficult to reduce the noise, decrease the size and so on because the refrigeration cycle system is operated to store heat at night.
Further, in the apparatus of the type that the air conditioner is operated in the daytime with the storage battery charged with night surplus power, since the improvement in performance of the refrigeration cycle system is not considered, the power consumption is large and hence the power of the storage battery is used up in a short time. Particularly in the air conditioning apparatus that a plurality of indoor units are connected to an outdoor unit, the performance required varies largely and it is impossible to carry out peak power cut in the daytime satisfactorily. Even if a large number of storage batteries are employed to make the capacity larger in order to overcome these problems, the cost of the storage battery is increased enormously to operate the air conditioner with the storage battery for many hours.
An object of the present invention is to provide an electricity storage type air conditioning apparatus and a cooling/heating source device therefor which are capable of coping with the improvement in performance of the air conditioner or the needs for increase in cooling load and additional equipment to be installed afterward, by which it becomes possible to easily reduce the power consumption in the daytime even for the existing apparatus in which peak power cut is not considered, and which are suitable to reduce the noise and decrease the size.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electricity storage type air conditioning apparatus and a cooling/heating source device therefor by which it becomes possible to reduce the power consumption in the daytime for many hours, which can be decreased in size and so are suitable for later and additional installation and the like, and which enable the cost of construction to be reduced and the existing piping to be utilized.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an electricity storage type air conditioning apparatus and a cooling/heating source device therefor which are capable of dealing with the air conditioning apparatus the performance required of which varies largely by compensating the performance or by adding equipment, and by which it becomes possible to carry out peak power cut in the daytime satisfactorily.
The present invention is intended to solve at least one of the problems described above.